Danny Mirko Kadum

Rhetoric, Landscape & Painting

My heart resides with the setting Sun under a radiant pink sky in the desert of southern Arizona.

Nix, a gray winter landscape rendered in sweeping bands of snow and wind.
Nix — Oil on canvas, 32 × 42 in.

I paint my love of nature. I write poetry about the landscape.

Anemographia, three deer moving through a foggy canyon under a blue-gray sky.
Anemographia — Oil on canvas, 32 × 42 in.

Representation is not the main goal; the feeling of a landscape transcending into a dream-like and ethereal reality is the aesthetic goal.

Hydrographia, a desert spring with saguaros, green hills, and water descending through rocks.
Hydrographia — Oil on canvas, 42 × 62 in.

The water at the bottom of the painting is the most important detail; this series is entirely about the cycles of water.

Dendrographia, a warm desert landscape containing a fallen saguaro beneath forming monsoon clouds.
Dendrographia — Oil on canvas, 32 × 42 in.

The great grandfather died slowly over the course of years. Even in death, the saguaro feeds the desert.

Monsoon, an atmospheric storm over mountains painted in dark moving masses.
Monsoon — Oil on canvas, 32 × 42 in.

My goal with this series was to let the painterly be part of the language as much as what is being represented.

American Riviera, a panoramic charcoal drawing of offshore oil rigs and patterned waves.
American Riviera — Charcoal on paper, 12 × 4 ft.

America has a unique history and relationship to the natural world, with one hand willing to exploit its riches and with the other willing to safeguard it for future generations.

Silicon Beach, a seven-panel sunset panorama of the Santa Monica Bay and Venice Beach.
Silicon Beach — Oil on seven panels, 2 × 14 ft.

A disposable aesthetic prevails, and we know the status quo cannot go on forever.

Biosphere II, a landscape painting of glass domes beneath mountain forms.
Biosphere II — Oil on canvas, 30 × 42 in.

There is a spirituality to the American landscape, there is a vice to our capitalist will.

Arcosanti, a pink desert vision of domes, buildings, cypress forms, and curving roads.
Arcosanti — Oil on canvas, 30 × 42 in.

I seek to use the landscape and its history to envision an aesthetic for a new era.

Light Flood, a spiritual desert landscape with a seated figure beneath a radiant sky.
Light Flood — Oil on panel, 32 × 32 in.

American reverence of nature—an undercurrent in the culture—will surface again in full force, perhaps out of responsibility and ingenuity to propel us to a sustainable future.

— Danny Mirko Kadum, Rhetoric, Landscape & Painting